Sunday, March 27, 2011

Aussie Authors! So What's New? Come and Tell Us.

Come and have a chat with those who are as excited about your success as you are.

Here at Sneak a Peek we are keen to hear your current news about your publishing success.  Have you found a fabulous promoting venue? Do you have a new cover? Has your book been translated for publication in another country.
Or what's happening with your work in progress? Are your characters behaving outrageously? Do they give you grief?

My work in progess is the 2nd draft of a children's story I wrote years ago. It gives me goosebumps when I read it and still brings a tear to my eye. BUT it is all Tell. It reads as if I'm relating a story to a group of children at my feet. So, I'm in the process of changing this to Show, to draw the child reader into the story so they can experience life on the alien planet, first hand, with the characters I love. 

Why is it so easy to be satisfied with what is already down on paper? I know. It's because I have to think. Writing for most writers is fun, exciting, engaging; an escape. For me it is hard work. I sweat blood over every scene, especially the ones I know must be re written - and that's all of them, many times over.

Is there an easier way?

If you are an Aussie Author and published, and would like to join this group just let us know in the comments, here.

4 comments:

  1. You are so right, Wendy. Good writing is hard work, and to make matters worse, selling your good writing is even harder. The good news is that today's market has changed the whole relationship between the people who create books (us) and the people who sell them (puablishers, agents, distributors, retailers).

    Self-publishing, POD, ebooks have swept the initial hurdles of book production away, and we no longer have to go cap-in-hand to the Established Book Trade.

    I sincerely hope the days of exploitative publishing contracts have gone, but we need a new structure to get our books out to the world. Aussie authors can help by co-operating, sharing ideas and resources, and by posting good stuff HERE.

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  2. How true, Wendy. I can't even count the amount of times I edit and shape a story. Then there is the research. A character in my new book, Journey from Walara, is sent to fight in New Guinea in 1942. I have spent so much time researching the Kokoda Track and discovered history that has made me so furious that our young soldiers were treated so badly by the hierarchy. I'm trying to put in my fiction.
    I'm glad you are at work on your new book.

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  3. Afraid it's not my new book Laurel - an old short story, but it's a good exercise in restructuring from passive to active voice.

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  4. Hi Jacqueline,
    Yes it is hard to sell good writing but perseverence still seems to be the way to go. Even then we might get so far, like I did a few years ago, and the door is suddenly slammed in our face. Fortunately The Unhewn Stone has found a home at MuseItUp publishing, http://museituppublishing.com/ and will enter the world soon, polished and shiny new.

    Then I will be more active and in-your-face. Right now I'm just concentrating on writing my next book that Laurel aluded to.

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